If you’re looking for compelling storylines to possibly come out of today’s Stanford game, and you’re not foaming at the mouth to put Jim Harbaugh in his place for predicting Pete Carroll’s end-of-the-season departure, consider that we might be in store for the coming out party of two exciting USC freshmen. Joe McKnight will likely get a significant number of carries with C.J. Gable done for the season and Stafon Johnson resting his bruised foot. And Ronald Johnson, again with Gable out, will attempt to grab the kickoff return duties by the throat after a respectable start last Saturday. The Trojans were 40 point favorites even before Stanford’s starting QB T.C. Ostrander was declared out of the game after experiencing seizures. An inexperienced Tavita Pritchard will have its hands full against a Trojan defense ready to put the team on their collective backs after a lackluster, mistake-filled performance at Washington.

Heres a roundup of the Saturday morning preview coverage in all of the major publications. As usual, we’ll be ready a late Saturday night recap of the game.

USC heavily favored over Stanford (LA Times)
USC’s Johnson is looking for a break (LA Times)
USC-Stanford: Fix-it time (Orange County Register)
No. 2 USC vs. Stanford (The Press-Enterprise)
USC expects to bounce back (Daily Trojan)